Velipadinte Pusthakam (The Book of Revelation) a.k.a. Apocalypse is the last – most intriguing
– book in The Bible. It is a befuddling piece of writing attributed by some to
St John the apostle of Jesus, and has divided scholars for centuries.

Lal Jose’s film of
the same name is neither as esoteric nor as confounding as the title suggests.
It marks the stalwart’s first team-up with one of Malayalam cinema’s biggest
superstars.

Mohanlal here plays
a professor whose arrival at a Christian college in a coastal fishing town
marks a turning point in its troubled existence. Caste tensions run high among
the students, with the children of poor fisherfolk being taunted for their
humble background while the well-off lot are in turn mocked as rejects from more
prestigious educational institutions. Violence between these groups is rampant
when Lalettan’s character, Michael Idiculla,enters the picture.

He is an
unconventional teacher and a compassionate human being who finds ways to
encourage the poorer kids, demystify their lives in the minds of their
financially fortunate classmates, and bring all warring sides together.
However, when he suggests a fund-raising project to be executed entirely by the
staff and students, the story takes unexpected turns, and we end up discovering
far more than he might have wished to reveal about himself while
simultaneously, and accidentally, figuring out the truth behind a crime that
once rocked the town.

Parallel to these
present-day happenings, we are told a tale from the past, of Vishwan (played by
Anoop Menon), the man accused of his murder (Siddique) and the one who went to
prison for it (Chemban Vinod Jose).

The film opens with
a vicious fight on a rainy night years ago. The revelations in Velipadinte Pusthakam are the truth
behind that clash as much as Idiculla’s truth.

These discoveries
are not as earth-shattering as they are made out to be by their positioning in
the storyline and the tone in which they’re told, but they add up to a reasonably
entertaining film.

Velipadinte Pusthakam packs a lot into
its 157 minutes – a mystery, mental illness, casteism, even a brief mention of
male supremacy. Writer Benny P. Nayarambalam skims over most of these themes
though, pivoting the narrative entirely around the hero and the whodunnit.

So don’t go looking
for insights on most of these subjects. Mental health, for instance, is merely a
device to further the thriller element in the film. This becomes forgivable, I
guess, if you consider that at least Velipadinte
Pusthakam does not perpetuate specific myths about the disorder it
references, unlike so many mainstream Indian films.

The mention of
caste in the story is well-intentioned, even if simplistic and risk-averse. Deep-seated
prejudices are easily forgotten when the hero waves his magic wand over the
community. And in the opening scenes when student gangs headed by the boys
Franklin (Sarath Kumar) and Sameer (Arun Kurian) are being chided by the principal
(Shivaji Guruvayoor), their discussion neatly apportions equal blame to both
groups, no doubt to avoid offending relatively privileged castes who dominate
the audience.

Still, the
conversation – flawed though it is – is a reminder that southern Indian cinema,
at the very least, acknowledges the existence of caste oppression (many films here
do more than just that), unlike the Brahminical worldview pervading the north’s
biggest film industry, Bollywood.

If the equation
between the students had been further explored, Velipadinte Pusthakam would have had greater depth. One particularly memorable sidelight
involves a boy apologising to a female collegemate for his voyeuristic
behaviour. It is such a pleasure to see a college campus in a Malayalam film
where male misdemeanours are not trivialised or normalised.

Unfortunately, the
students are sidelined once Idiculla walks in (considerably late in the opening
half, I must point out), and Velipadinte
Pusthakam shifts to being his story from theirs. This is the film’s loss, somewhat
like how Taare Zameen Par might have
suffered if, upon Aamir Khan’s late arrival on the scene, it had become the
tale of Nikumbh Sir rather than little Ishaan.

The decision to
marginalise the students is one of several poorly conceived aspects of the
writing. Another
is the Christian clergy’s official endorsement of
Vishwan despite the violent methods he would use to do good. While it is
conceivable that the clergy might offer behind-the-scenes support to such a man
because he helped them, the very public stance they take here in his favour – going
to the extent of hanging his picture on the college wall, between the
photographs of bishops – defies believability in much the same way as if
Mahatma Gandhi had erected Bhagat Singh’s statue at a monument to ahimsa.

Inevitably, at one
point a good-looking young woman expresses interest in marrying Michael Idiculla.This is the primary purpose served by
the presence in the story of the teacher Mary, played by the charismatic Reshma
Rajan from AngamalyDiaries. A conversation she has with
another teacher about the age difference is hardly a saving grace, when you
consider how superfluous this aside is in the script, and how silly, no
different from the young housemaid’s effort to flirt with Mohanlal’s character
Jayaraman in last year’s Oppam.

It’s funny – and
sad – that Lalettan’s directors feel compelled to remind us that he continues
to be attractive to handsome young women, as if that, and not his talent, is
the measure of his hero-worthiness. Is this
their definition of masculinity? Does it reveal too the star’s insecurity
and his discomfort with his advancing years? Perhaps this is the velipad (revelation) of Lalettan’s
filmography of the past couple of decades. Thankfully this daft interlude in
the film is brief.

As it happens, Velipadinte Pusthakam is done in by its
excessive awareness of Mohanlal’s stardom. Potentially interesting characters
such as Sameer, Franklin and Franklin’s feisty lady friend are pushed aside,
and a striking actress like Rajan is reduced to being a showpiece, all to
maintain the male megastar’s primacy.

Not surprisingly,
as is the case with too many commercial Malayalam films, women are hardly
significant to the proceedings. While this is routine in Mollywood, it is
particularly noticeable here because Idiculla asks a specific question about
male dominance in a classroom one day.

Be that as it may, Lal
Jose manages to keep Velipadinte
Pusthakam moderately appealing with incremental doses of information about
Idiculla and Vishwan. This is not a spectacular thriller, but the suspense is mildly
engaging, Shaan Rahman’s music and DoP Vishnu Sarma’s visuals of the seaside
location are pretty at all times, and the acting uniformly competent.

If the director had
not been so conscious of Mohanlal’s stardom, he may have done a better job of
tapping the actor in him. As it is, Lalettan is
fair enough and Velipadinte Pusthakam isa more
worthwhile Onam offering than the week’s other new release starring the other
Big M of Mollywood.

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About Me

Anna MM Vetticad is an award-winning journalist, journalism teacher and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic, an overview of the Hindi film industry presented through an account of a year in which she watched every single Bollywood film released in India’s National Capital Region. A journalist since 1994, she has worked with India Today, The Indian Express and Headlines Today. At HT she hosted her own interview show Star Trek which drew all India’s eminent entertainment personalities. While Anna has spent most of her career as a behind-the-scenes editorial person, she has also reported on most major Indian entertainment and lifestyle events and several international ones including Cannes and the Oscars, in addition to being the film critic for Headlines Today. She is currently reporting and writing for multiple publications on cinema and social issues with a focus on gender concerns. The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic is available on amazon.com, ebay.in, flipkart.com, ombooksinternational.com, ombooks.com, infibeam.com, homeshop18.com and dialabook.in among other websites, and in stores across India. Twitter: @annavetticad